26 Weeks Of Paid Maternity Leave For Women Staff Having Children Via Surrogacy

IWB Post

February 8, 2018

According to an official order of the Department of Personnel and Training, the Central Government has announced that its women employees, getting a child through surrogacy, will be equally entitled to maternity leave as other women and can get 26 weeks of paid maternity leave.

“All ministries/departments are advised to give wide publicity of its contents to the concerned officers,” said the personnel ministry in its latest directive to all the ministries and enclosed a copy of the Delhi High Court order of 2015 on the same.

The issue had been raised when a Kendriya Vidyalaya teacher approached the court when she had twins through a surrogate mother. Because she was not the biological mother, she had been denied maternity leave.

“A female employee, who is the commissioning mother, would be entitled to apply for maternity leave,” the court said.

It also added that the timing and period of the maternity leave will be decided by the competent authority. The court also said that the scrutiny that follows would be more detailed in the case the leave is asked for by a female employee who is the commissioning mother at the prenatal stage.

In case, both the surrogate mother and the commissioning mother are employees, necessary adjustments will be made by the competent authority as both of them are eligible for the leave, as the latter is a commissioning mother and the former is the pregnant woman.